By Sara Hinds
As a seventh-grade math teacher at Columbus Middle School, Joni Ebel ’06E takes concrete thinkers and introduces them to new concepts: math can be abstract and fun.
Up until then, her tween students have lived in the world of the four basic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The abstractness begins when positive and negative integers, variables and probability enter the equation.
A classroom of wide eyes, filled with panic and confusion, stares back at her. They’re in good hands, though. Ebel’s teaching toolkit is uniquely equipped with 24 years of experience, an emphasis on out-of-the-box thinking, a master’s degree in educational leadership and as of early 2025, a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) — the highest honor a K-12 science or math teacher can receive for teaching in the United States.
No more than 110 teachers receive the award each year (two from every state, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories and Department of Defense Education Activity schools). If that doesn’t paint prestige, the extensive application process certainly does.
Ebel submitted reference letters, 15 essay questions and a 60-minute video of her teaching. A state selection committee consisting of STEM educators, researchers and other professionals selects six finalists — three math and three science teachers. From there, a national selection committee selects two awardees, one math and one science teacher.
Committees review the candidates based on criteria that improves student learning, such as content expertise and leadership in and out of the classroom. The odds of being chosen are slim, even for qualified candidates like Ebel, who applied four times since 2015 and was a finalist twice.
“Earning this, I want to stand on a roof and just shout for joy, because it is so cool, and not very many people get this honor,” Ebel said.
As a PAEMST awardee, she will receive $10,000 from the National Science Foundation and an all-expenses-paid trip to the award ceremony in Washington D.C.
And the process, as laborious and tedious as it was at times, “was so instrumental in my professional development,” Ebel said.
Twenty years prior, her drive for professional development and a suggestion from her then-administrator found her researching master’s degrees and considering a move to principal.
“I thought, ‘Well, okay, sounds kind of scary. I don't know if I want to join that dark side,” Ebel joked. “I started looking into colleges, and I knew I wanted it to be fairly quick, not drawn out over years.”
Doane’s master of educational leadership (EDL) program met on the weekends and during the summer over two years. It was the perfect fit.
Though Ebel ultimately decided not to pursue principalship, she serves on committees and in other leadership roles at the school and state level. She also recognizes how leadership weaves into her everyday job as an educator. Ebel uses strategies and techniques she learned in the EDL program to de-escalate and resolve conflict among peers, parents and students. And she guides students through what is, for many, a hard subject.
While the PAEMST award is a career-defining achievement, Ebel is proudest of the relationships she’s built with students over the years. She’ll receive letters from former students or parents, thanking her or reminiscing about activities done in class. And for good reason — Ebel brings jolts of creativity to her classroom. Math and creativity usually don’t go hand-in-hand, then again her students didn’t expect math and abstractness to coexist, either.
“I try to think of unique ways [to teach], because we're dealing with 12- and 13-year-olds,” Ebel said. “We're up, we're moving around, we're doing stations, we're doing all sorts of things.”
Math doesn’t have to be a student’s favorite subject, but Ebel is thrilled when they learn something or enjoy the process.
“Math might not have been their favorite subject, but because of the way I taught [them], they learned something,” Ebel said.
